1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for annealing a semiconductor, in particular, to an annealing process for obtaining a polycrystal semiconductor used in a thin film device such as an insulated gate field effect transistor by laser irradiation.
2. Description of Prior Art
Thin films of polycrystalline silicon semiconductor for use in a thin film device such as a thin film insulated gate field effect transistor (abbreviated hereinafter as a TFT) have been fabricated heretofore by first depositing amorphous silicon films by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or thermal CVD processes, and then irradiating a laser beam thereto to crystallize the thus deposited amorphous silicon films.
The process of crystallizing an amorphous silicon film by irradiating a laser beam comprises, in general, first irradiating a low energy density laser beam to the amorphous silicon film to allow desorption of hydrogen having incorporated into the starting amorphous silicon film, and then irradiating a laser beam at an energy density well above the threshold energy density (a minimum energy density necessary to initiate melting of silicon).
A laser beam having a sufficiently low energy should be irradiated to the amorphous silicon film for the purpose of releasing the hydrogen being incorporated in the film because, if a beam of a high energy density corresponding to the threshold value or higher were to be irradiated, there occur two problems. One is a problem which involves abrupt evolution of a considerable amount of hydrogen from the surface of an amorphous silicon film upon irradiating the laser beam. Such a phenomenon greatly impairs the smoothness of the film surface; the resulting film cannot provide a favorable interface level when an insulator film is established on the surface of the thus crystallized silicon film, because a level develops at the interface between the silicon film and the insulator film. The other problem is the hydrogens present in large amount in the amorphous silicon film; they not only evolve out of the surface upon irradiation of a high energy laser beam having an energy density not lower than the threshold value, but also move inside the melting silicon film with a large kinetic energy to impede the crystallization of the silicon itself.
Accordingly, a conventional laser annealing processes involves a so-called pre-laser annealing step which comprises irradiating a low energy density laser beam to sufficiently drive out hydrogen atoms having incorporated inside the film, followed by the irradiation of a laser beam having a satisfactorily high energy density to effect crystallization of the film. In this manner, the influence of the hydrogen inside the film on the film crystallization can be eliminated.
The conventional laser annealing processes, however, suffer disadvantages as follows.
Firstly, the laser annealing process should be conducted in two steps. Such a process is not suitable for processing large-area substrates. Moreover, it suffers poor efficiency.
Secondly, the most generally used excimer lasers which are operated in a pulsed mode are not suitable for completely driving hydrogen out of the film; the duration of the laser irradiation per pulse is too short.
Furthermore, any laser apparatus for use in the laser annealing inevitably suffers a non-uniform laser beam output and a fluctuation in power output. Those attributes make the hydrogen distribution non-uniform inside the film upon driving hydrogen atoms out of the film. Such a film having a non-uniform hydrogen distribution therein results in a crystallized film consisting of crystal grains of non-uniform grain diameter.